Background

Workflow means different things to different people. In very simple terms, it is a business process which helps to achieve a single business transaction. There are many types or ways to achieve or automate a business process and perform a business transaction. Kenesto provides an ad-hoc and flexible workflow for automating a task-based process. Think of workflow as a series of tasks that must be performed by one or more people to achieve a business transaction, Kenesto provides the perfect solution for that.

As you will notice in the workflow module and throughout the Kenesto product, workflows can be shared, owners can be changed and discussions can be held around workflows. You will also notice when in the design of workflow familiar menu items will show you what documents have been attached to the workflow and more.

Note for Administrators: access to turn “on” or “off” the workflow module for your company instance is in your admin panel.

Setup your workflow types

You can categorize different workflow processes for better organization. The default category or type is “General Workflow.” You can create types such as “Engineering Change Orders”, “Invoice approval”, “Design Quotes”, etc. as to describe your business process.
To add a new type, open the “Workflow” tab. Click the “Manage Type” button and click on “Add customized types” or click the ‘+ ‘button

The following dialog will come up

Enter the name in the title field and click “Add”

Your new type will be created and listed under the “Workflow” select box, see below.

Create your first workflow

Click on the “Workflow” tab. Create a workflow type “Engineering Change Order.” Select it from the workflow type select box. Click the “+” button to create a workflow categorized as engineering change order.

Enter a workflow name and click “Add.”

You will see the workflow “Mold design change” with two tasks shown in the palette. This is an example of starting two steps in your workflow, see below:

Design your workflow

Let us add three more steps to your workflow. In this example: we are routing a document to a designer. Once the designer completes the task and approves it goes back to engineering for completion.
Add a task/ step for the designer. Click on the “Start” task. You will see the following menu popup:

Click “Compose Task.” We will add the Task for the designer here.

Click “Compose.” Compose only will not send the task right away. You will see the new task added to the workflow:

Similarly, we will add two more Tasks for verification and costing.

Deploy your workflow

At this point, the workflow process is complete. Each task has been assigned to the right person. The workflow is ready to start.

Start the workflow

Please note that first task is active. Now, we need to work on the first task according to the instructions and complete it. This must be completed before the next task becomes active.
Completing the first task: If you mouse over the instructions, it says,
“Upload the new specifications for the mold”
Let us upload the specs using the “Documents” tab next to the “Workflow”.

Click on “Documents” and click “Upload Document.”
The document is now under the workflow.

You can also add an existing document from Kenesto. Let us go back to the “Workflow” and click on the first task.

Click “Complete Task” to finish the task.

Enter a note and click “Complete”. The first task is completed now. The workflow now proceeds to the next task. The second task is now active.

When you move to the next task, the recipient is notified, in this case: Mike is notified of the task assignment through Kenesto notification: two ways, in the tool as well as email. The notification is on the top right and displays like the following:

Mike also receives an email for the task assignment and another for the completion notes. See below:

Let us go through the process of completing the next steps.

Once the workflow is complete, you can access the workflow using “My Completed Workflow” selector.

Click on the workflow to open the workflow. You will be able to access the documents, etc. from the workflow as earlier.This concludes how to use a simple workflow from start to finish.

Creating Workflow Templates

Templates help you reuse your workflow processes so that you do not need to redesign the same processes again. There are two ways to design a template.

1. You can design a template just like a new workflow and use it to save as a template.
2. You can start with any existing workflow and make it a template.

Note: documents can be attached and saved to workflow templates.

Design a workflow template

Click the “Templates” tab and select “Workflow templates” from the select box as follows:

Click the “+” button. You will see the following:

Select your workflow type and enter name and description for the workflow template.

Click “Add.”

You can design a workflow just like before. When done, you can publish the template by clicking on the button,, the second button from the left.

You will see the status as with green dot as below.

You can edit the template again by clicking on the button again.

Save an Existing Workflow as Template

Open the “Workflow tab”. Open the workflow that you want to create a template from. You can also create a template from a completed workflow.

Let us open the “Mold design change” workflow we just completed. Click on the button to “Save as Template”

Please enter the template name below and click “Save”.

Now go to the “Templates” tab and open the “Workflow templates” from the select box. Your new template is listed.

Now, you edit the template and make any changes. Publish the template so that you can use it in a workflow.

Workflow Operations

Kenesto allows various operations at each step or task. When you click on a task in a workflow, you will see the available actions or operations based on where in the process you are.

Compose Tasks

While composing a task, you can add parallel tasks, make it a signature task which lets the assignee accept or reject it. You can also add a review step immediately following it.

Parallel Tasks

When you add parallel task, they will show up as the image below. You have to add them together when designing it. All parallel tasks must be completed before the step in the workflow moves forward to the next task.

Signature (approve/reject) task

A signature task is an approval task. Instead of “Complete Task”, the user assigned has to “Approve”, “Reject”, or “Abstain”. Whatever the user chooses will be marked on the task.

However, the process moves to the next task and next task becomes active.

Review Step

Review task is an automatic task that is added when composing a new task. The review task is created with the word “Review” prefixed to the task that is being created. In the following case, the review task will be called “Review Formalize aqua”.

We will end up as:

Start Task

Starting a task marks the task as started with the current date and time.

Back (Repeat Task)

Click on the “Back” to go back to the previous task and do it again. The numbers in parenthesis represent how many times the task has been repeated.

Skip Task

Sometimes it may be necessary to skip a task and to go to the next task. The task is not deleted or executed. But it will be shown as skipped. You can skip multiple tasks. It is also possible to go back and return to a skipped task if necessary.

Edit Details

Edit the task, change start date, instructions, etc.

Escalation

You can add some escalation rules at any time before the task is completed for notifications and past due events.

Sub-Workflow

You can add a sub-workflow to a task if you are assigned to the task or you are the owner of the process. Sub-workflow as the name implies can be a series of steps or tasks that must be completed before the original task is completed. It also helps grouping or branching tasks and designing a simpler process. It helps to hide complexity and gain better control of the whole process.
Let us take a look at the process now.

To add a sub-workflow to “Test the process” task, click on it.

From the menu, click “Create Sub Workflow”. You will see the “Create Sub Workflow” dialog. You can choose your workflow type and title just as you would for a regular workflow.

Now, you are in the sub-workflow design page.

Let us add two parallel steps to this sub-workflow.

Click on the task to go back to the Task

You can go back to the main workflow by clicking on its name. You will see that “Test the process” task has a sub-workflow symbol attached to it. You can mouse over the sub-workflow circular icon to see a popup with a link. Click on the link to go to the sub-workflow.

When the process moves to the step, “Test the process”, the step with sub-workflow, the sub-workflow must be completed before it can move to the next step, “Review Test the process”.